Latitud Podcast

Venture capital is not about driving a car, but flying a spaceship. It's all about the long-term mission. Latin America has laid the groundwork in the last years in terms of talent, capital, and market adoption. Even so, we're still in the early stage of our space exploration campaign, both in terms of what technology can do and in terms of startup exits.These are some of the reflections shared by three partners at venture capital firms. These firms invest heavily in Latin America. Izabel Gallera, from Canary; Marcelo Lima, from Monashees; and Santiago Fossatti, from Kaszek, were all at Vamos Latam Summit, our connections and knowledge flagship event.We'll share right now the chat these VCs had with Tomi Roggio, head of Ventures at Latitud. They talked about:What has changed for founders and investors in Latin America during the last decade, and how startups should deal with current market conditions;What Canary, Monashees, and Kaszek really value when selecting startups;And what trends and verticals these VCs are excited about for the next years.Building good sh*t in Latin America? Learn about how Latitud can help you at latitud.com Discover and pitch Latitud Ventures, your partner from 0 to 1 and beyond Sign up for our weekly newsletter for founder insights and some tough love And follow us on Linkedin / Instagram / Spotify to stay in the loop

Building a community is a powerful tool for any startup – but it's not an easy task to create a gathering that becomes a reference. There might be a few names that come to your mind when talking about founder communities, maybe Techstars, Endeavor, Google for Startups, and Latitud itself.Ian Hathaway, Camilla Junqueira, and André Barrence shared their best practices for building founder communities with Virginia Campo, Latitud's Director of Programs and Community, during the Vamos Latam Summit.In our connections and knowledge flagship event, they talked about:What defines a community, and why giving back and fostering engagement are so important;What metrics are used to assess the quality of a founder community, and how to keep the community's essence even when it grows;And what is the role of in-real-life events to sustain a stronger founder community.Building good sh*t in Latin America? Learn about how Latitud can help you at latitud.com Discover and pitch Latitud Ventures, your partner from 0 to 1 and beyond Sign up for our weekly newsletter for founder insights and some tough love And follow us on Linkedin / Instagram / Spotify to stay in the loop

You've probably heard from our friends at a16z that every company will become a fintech. Latin America's one of the most fertile grounds for the providers of new financial products and services. There are over a thousand fintechs in the region.In this fierce competition, the ones that flourished were fintechs offering powerful solutions to huge pain points. By enabling cross-border payments, dLocal became the first unicorn from Uruguay and went public. And by attacking high-interest loans, Creditas became another Brazilian fintech unicorn.Sergio Fogel and Sergio Furio, founders of dLocal and Creditas, reflected on the fintech revolution in the region during Vamos Latam Summit, our connections and knowledge flagship event. We'll share right now the chat the two Sergios had, moderated by Miguel Armaza, from Gilgamesh Ventures. They talked about:- How to provide new products and services to consumers that either don't know or know really well what they want, and how to be a wartime or a peacetime CEO in Latin America;- How to deal with challenges like international expansion, currency fluctuations, and going public;- And what makes fintech in Latin America unique in relation to the rest of the world.Building good sh*t in Latin America? Learn about how Latitud can help you at latitud.com Discover and pitch Latitud Ventures, your partner from 0 to 1 and beyond Sign up for our weekly newsletter for founder insights and some tough love And follow us on Linkedin / Instagram / Spotify to stay in the loop

Being a startup founder comes with a big ambition. To conquer your dreams, however, you should learn the best practices for launching your business, fundraising, and hiring talent.Taking advice from founders who have either exited or transformed their startups into unicorns will shorten that learning journey. Andres Bilbao from Rappi, Dileep Thazhmon from Jeeves, and Ingrid Barth from Linker showed how to think big from day zero at Vamos Latam Summit, our connections and knowledge flagship event.We'll share right now the chat they had, moderated by Rosa Jimenez, from Jeeves. Andres, Dileep, and Ingrid talked about:- When founders are really ready to launch their startups and raise money from investors;- If founders can actually achieve work-life balance, and how important the first hires in a startup are;- What would they change if they could start over as entrepreneurs, and the one piece of advice Andres, Dileep, and Ingrid would each give to startup founders.Building good sh*t in Latin America? Learn about how Latitud can help you at latitud.com Discover and pitch Latitud Ventures, your partner from 0 to 1 and beyond Sign up for our weekly newsletter for founder insights and some tough love And follow us on Linkedin / Instagram / Spotify to stay in the loop

Not many people know or believe that Instagram has a Brazilian as a co-founder. Mike Krieger was not only that – he was also the sole developer for Instagram during its early stages.Between the ideation of a mobile check-in app called Burbn and Instagram becoming one of the most heavily used apps of our days, there's a lot to be shared.At Vamos Latam Summit, our connections and knowledge flagship event, Mike recounted his journey with Gina Gotthilf – who co-founded Latitud with me and Yuri, and is also a former VP of Growth at the education app Duolingo.Gina and Mike talked about:The main lessons Mike learned during his journey as Instagram's co-founder;How to maintain a good relationship between cofounders and deal with the expansion of your startup to other countries;What growth levers helped Instagram pick up in its early days, and how to not lose sight of product and people when developing new technologies.Building good sh*t in Latin America? Learn about how Latitud can help you at latitud.com Discover and pitch Latitud Ventures, your partner from 0 to 1 and beyond Sign up for our weekly newsletter for founder insights and some tough love And follow us on Linkedin / Instagram / Spotify to stay in the loop

Pete Flint, Partner at NFX and seasoned entrepreneur behind unicorn Trulia, shares invaluable insights for startup founders. He discusses NFX's growing interest in Latin America, emphasizing unique opportunities for growth. Pete offers non-obvious advice on fundraising, hiring adaptable team members, and the importance of building a strong company culture. He also explores key mistakes founders make during expansion and how to navigate successful exits, stressing the need to focus on solving meaningful problems.

After more than two years of a global pandemic, some habits are here to stay. In Latin America, even more so. The boom in tech adoption has held up more in the region when comparing it to the US. But even with this growth, the potential for tech creation is still huge in LatAm.This is just one of the insights from the newest Digital Transformation Report, which is being published today by the venture capital fund Atlantico. Julio Vasconcellos is Atlantico's managing partner and was also the founder of the Brazilian e-commerce Peixe Urbano. Ana Martins is a VC investor at Atlantico.Today, Julio, Ana and I talk about:Why tech adoption in LatAm presents a bigger opportunity in comparison to other regions of the world;How startups are dealing right now with boom and bust cycles and recruiting talent, and how they should deal with these challenges;And the three segments in which LatAm can become a global leader.Building good sh*t in Latin America? Learn about how Latitud can help you at latitud.com Discover and pitch Latitud Ventures, your partner from 0 to 1 and beyond Sign up for our weekly newsletter for founder insights and some tough love And follow us on Linkedin / Instagram / Spotify to stay in the loop

Alfonso De Los Ríos is 23 years old, but his startup experience goes way beyond what you'd imagine for his age. He's the co-founder of Nowports, a startup that is bringing tech to the international supply chain and helping companies move their containers more efficiently.Nowports rode the logistics startups boom during the pandemic. The company raised its Series A one year into the pandemic – and then raised round after round at a breakneck pace. The last one was a Series C, led by SoftBank, which valued the Mexican startup at over a billion dollars and transformed it into a unicorn.Today, Alfonso and I talk about:Alfonso's journey of cofounding Nowports, raising round after round, and managing its global growth;His take on the changes brought by the pandemic and the current market downturn, and his strategy of going on the offensive;How to scale a startup without losing its culture and values, and Alfonso's sources for learning about leadership.Building good sh*t in Latin America? Learn about how Latitud can help you at latitud.com Discover and pitch Latitud Ventures, your partner from 0 to 1 and beyond Sign up for our weekly newsletter for founder insights and some tough love And follow us on Linkedin / Instagram / Spotify to stay in the loop

James Currier is an expert in a key ingredient behind the success of companies like Meta, Uber, and Amazon. The key ingredient? Network effects. They happen when a company's product or service becomes more valuable as its usage increases.James has not only seen the growth of digital businesses but also created four successful venture-backed startups himself in the past couple of decades. Those endeavors were sold to companies like Monster and PayPal. His fifth company is the early-stage venture capital fund NFX (you got it: network effects). He's currently a general partner there. Today, James advises top startups about how to build strong network effects to win – and win big.Today, James and I talk about:His journey as an entrepreneur and as an angel investor up to NFX;The discovery and the importance of network effects;And James' lessons for entrepreneurs looking at network effects when creating and scaling their startups.Building good sh*t in Latin America? Learn about how Latitud can help you at latitud.com Discover and pitch Latitud Ventures, your partner from 0 to 1 and beyond Sign up for our weekly newsletter for founder insights and some tough love And follow us on Linkedin / Instagram / Spotify to stay in the loop

Jimena Pardo started her startup journey after having a chat with the venture capital fund ALLVP. The Mexican venture capital fund focused on solving the hardest problems in Spanish-speaking Latin America and eventually wrote a check for Jimena's car-sharing startup.Ten years later, Jimena is on the other side of the table. After also spending some years as a product manager at Facebook, she became ALLVP's newest partner. Jimena joins a fund that manages more than US$ 350 million and has a portfolio of over 40 startups. Their emblematic portfolio company is Cornershop, sold to Uber.‍Today, Jimena and I talk about:What the Mexican ecosystem for startups was like a decade ago, and how it has evolved;Her journey as a founder and a tech executive, and how that made her a better investor;ALLVP’s current thesis, its plans for the following years, and its view on the current investment climate and on the opportunities for LatAm startupsBuilding good sh*t in Latin America? Learn about how Latitud can help you at latitud.com Discover and pitch Latitud Ventures, your partner from 0 to 1 and beyond Sign up for our weekly newsletter for founder insights and some tough love And follow us on Linkedin / Instagram / Spotify to stay in the loop